The Journal's all-purpose sports report.

Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday celebrate after giving the Cardinals a lead in Game 1 of the World Series.

The Journal provides minute-by-minute analysis of Game 1 of the World Series as Texas and St. Louis send their aces to the mound. Daniel Barbarisi, Matthew Futterman and Jason Gay offer their commentary from Busch Stadium on this World Series opener.

Greetings all! With less than half an hour until game time, thousands of bundled-up Cardinals fans are streaming into Busch Stadium, where it is legitimately chilly up in here. Some of the players are in short-sleeves, but theyâ€™re the only ones. There are very, very few Texas fans in the crowd, while the legions of Cards fans are psyched up and tons are bearing â€œrally squirrelâ€

I think we almost saw the broken Chris Carpenter. Guy makes a heckuva athletic play fielding a throw to get the runner at first base — and hits the ground hard leaping for the ball, almost getting run over in the process. Can’t imagine the Cards love seeing their 36-year-old ace flopping around. But man, that’s a nice play. I think we see a pretty good performance out of him. Battle-tested, gritty guy and yeah, a New Englander, unlike SoCal’s C.J. Wilson. Who, uh, just walked the first batter he faced.

Catty as it is, I have to agree. He also wore a really goofy ski hat to his group interview session yesterday. But hey, Wilson got out of the first inning unscathed — with a little help from his defense, especially Adrian Beltre, with two nice plays. Beltre, like Furcal, has to be one of the most underrated players of the past 10 years. If you think about what Beltre’s done already by age 32, and with the defense he plays, I think he’s up for Hall of Fame consideration at some point. Ah, and there he proves my point with a double in the second inning! What a guy.

It’s hard to say if this crowd is redder than an Ohio State football game. I believe it is. Best part about the upper deck behind home plate? The gorgeous view of the Deloitte office. Oh, and some arch thing.

That’s why it’s hard for me to see it when people say how even these offenses are. The Rangers get the DH, sure, but they scored 855 runs this year — 100 more than the Cardinals. That’s a bigger gap than just the DH provides. That’s just a brutal lineup to go through, whereas there are guys in the Cardinals’ order who can be pitched around. And with the Rangers playing Young at 1B here, they’re not even losing him. Just a nasty group.

You’d never want to say Game 1 is a must-win for anyone, but the St. Louis starters are a bit scary after Carpenter. Do you really want the possibility of going 0-2 at home resting on the shoulders of Jaime Garcia? Not exactly Andy Pettitte.

The thing that was always so lame (sorry) about those whiteouts and blue-outs in the NBA playoffs was that they were always just sponsor-driven T-shirt giveaways. What makes the Red Out at Busch much better is it’s just stuff people brought from home. Futterman pointed out early that there’s some blue. But it’s not the blue of the Rangers: It’s the 1980s blue the Cardinals rocked a while ago on one of the great unis.

It’s just too bad Berkman isn’t Jewish, because it would be a great undercurrent of the series here to get into the rivalry between Kinsler and Berkman for supremacy in the best Jewish athletes pamphlet. Alas…

Watching pitchers hit is awesome. C.J. Wilson actually didn’t do too badly by lofting a decent fly ball into left center for the second out. Bit of a pitcher’s duel developing, as we’re scoreless after Carpenter ends the inning by getting Kinsler to fly out. One of the main storylines here has been how miserable the starting pitching for both teams has been. But both Carpenter and Wilson have done well so far. And we don’t need to reiterate how badly Wilson needs a good postseason start heading into free agency.

Cardinals whack out their first hit against Wilson, a single by Nick Punto. Now Chris Carpenter gets to show off his bunting skills. Um, or lack thereof. After, like, a decade in the National League, you’d think the guy would be able to get a bunt down. But he takes two strikes and then bunts it foul on the third for the automatic out. Ouch. That was some American League pitcher-hitting right there.

It’s 45 degrees, and we are through the first three innings in about 45 minutes, including the nine-minute commercial breaks between half-innings. Perhaps we should just make baseball a winter sport. That ought to cut the game times down a bit.

Wilson doesn’t let the leadoff baserunner bother him and gets two strikeouts and an easy groundout to get out of the inning. Meanwhile, back in his office, his agent happily calls general managers around the league “just to say hello.”

Well, I can’t really think of any others, so I guess so! The closest thing that even comes to mind as far as athletes abstaining from anything at all is A.C. Green, and that was a whole different kind of abstinence.

Wilson: “I study physics. I compete in a sports car racing series. I’m a Taoist. I guess an ‘engineering-minded, race-car-driving lefty who follows the teachings of Lao Tzu’ just doesn’t roll off the tongue.

Wilson lets one get away and it nails Pujols in the lower leg — and the Cards take immediate advantage. Matt Holliday slices a ball into the right-field corner, and Busch Stadium is alive for the first time tonight, with runners on second and third and no one out.

Cardinals are on the board. With men on second and third, David Freese hits a bouncer that eludes converted first baseman Michael Young and skitters just inside the first-base line. Pujols and Holliday come around to score. That two-run gap feels like an awful lot in a game like this. Oh, and nobody out. Can’t forget that Wilson opened these floodgates with that inning-starting HBP on Pujols. It was the kind of mistake that haunts in a playoff game.

Not exactly a lot of confidence there from Washington as Wilson intentionally walks Punto. I know Wilson looked really shaky that inning, but still. Would have been great for them to get Punto and then force Carpenter to lead off the next inning. Speaks volumes about Wilson, actually.

I was just about to praise Carpenter for being solid and aggressive and un-C.J.-like, and then he gives up a bomb to powerful Mike Napoli to tie this game up. Also, it’s all about the 7th lineup spot for the Rangers. Cruz does all his damage from there during the ALCS — then they move Napoli there for this series. Voila! About 389 feet on the homer.

Even though it’s been a pretty well pitched game so far, guys in both bullpens are starting to get up and get loose by moving around and warming up. Both managers — Washington, especially — have said they won’t hesitate to go to their bullpens early if they start sensing trouble.

The more I watch him, the more C.J. Wilson just seems like a decent No. 3 for a team like the Yankees or Red Sox. He’s not bad, but certainly not the kind of guy you overpay for. Right on cue, there’s another leadoff walk.

Almost five innings in, and we’ve barely heard anything but an organ over the Busch Stadium sound system. By this time last year in San Francisco, I think we had heard the Grateful Dead, Fleetwood Mac and a bunch of bands I’m too old to have heard of but that Jason insisted were very cool and important to Brooklyn hipsters. It’s all baseball here in St. Louis in October. Serious business.

In Yankee Stadium, the evil Fan Marquee would have blared out roughly 12 birthday announcements, six marriage proposals and one congratulations to Bob for 30 years with his company by now. Oh, and 15 montages about Yankee tradition. Anyway, Beltre’s playing a nice game over there at third. Wilson’s at 74 pitches and Carpenter 77.

A little action here in the top of the 6th as the Rangers try to manufacture a run: Kinsler single, bunt gets him to second, deep fly by Hamilton moves him to third… and then no farther, as Young bounces a ground ball that Pujols just barely gets to. I’m not sure which St. Louis Arch I like better, the big real one or the one lawn-mowered into the outfield grass. As someone who did a lot of lawn-mowering growing up, that just seems like a miserable thing to deal with. I’d way rather build one over a river. Of course, the grounds crew probably have riding mowers. So there’s that.

The first of what might be many excerpts from my interview with Alyssa Milano before Opening Day in 2009. Why not!

You still have your Manny dreadlock Dodger cap? Of course. I actually made one â€“- I bought one of those Rastafarian caps with the dreadlocks and I cut out the cap part and attached it to my Dodgers cap.

How did St. Louis regain the lead in the 6th? Freese doubled and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Alexi Ogando replaced Wilson as Allen Craig hit for Carpenter, meaning both starters are now out. And boy did Craig hit for Carpenter: He singles in the go-ahead run for the Cardinals, who now turn to their bullpen to protect the lead. LaRussaball time!

The pitching changes are coming fast and furious now. Mark Rzepczynski is in to replace Salas after the Rangers got men to first and second with one out. Pitchers are warming in both bullpens, too. Also, IMO, Saltalamacchia > Rzepczynski. But that could be the Italian in me talking.

Two Rangers pinch hitters just struck out in consecutive at-bats with two men on base — and still trail 3-2. And it’s their own fault. They’re a DH team in the American League, and they don’t have better pinch-hitters than Craig Gentry and Esteban German? Uh, who? German hasn’t batted in nearly a full month. I take back all that stuff I said about the monster Rangers offense.

Cardinals hit a bunch of balls hard but got nothing for it. Pujols smashed a long drive to center that fill-in German tracked down, and then Holliday lined out to Kinsler, who made a nifty running grab. And now they’re playing cool footage of Clydesdales walking around the park on the scoreboard. C’mon: It’s the World Series! They couldn’t have gotten the horses here live? I’m disappointed. Oh, and Octavio Dotel is in to pitch. He’s short, was once part of a great Houston bullpen and remains murderous on righthanders.

Dotel out, Rhodes in for St. Louis. Mike Adams warming up for Texas. Nine pitchers used so far, soon to be 10. Also, the towel-waving St. Louis crowd has finally drank enough to be warm and excited and stand up and cheer consistently. Onward to the middle of the 8th!

This game has downshifted to Yankees-Red Sox slow. At least give Ron Washington credit for leaving Scott Feldman in for more than one inning. Cardinals are trying to add on to their 3-2 lead, and the Rangers will have the second heart of their order (does that make it an artificial heart?) up in the 9th: 4-5-6 and maybe that lucky 7 spot.

The Cardinals use a closer-by-committee system, and Tony LaRussa mixes and matches his relievers according to the situation and his whims of the day. Fernando Salas, the team’s save leader with 24, pitched in the sixth inning. Jason Motte, who will be called on to close it out, has nine saves on the year. That’s going to make it really, really hard for any of these guys to break Mariano Rivera’s record.

Some weird ninth-inning drama here: Texas appears to have an out stolen when Adrian Beltre appears to foul a ball hard off his foot, but it bounces out to third base and is called a fair ball. Beltre first stands at home wincing in pain, then remains there for a minute telling home plate ump Jerry Layne: “It bounced off my foot. The ball hit my foot.” He and manager Ron Washington argue to no avail. Looks to me like the ump messed that up. Tough way to lose an out in a one-run World Series game.

And we’re all done here in St. Louis, where the Cardinals have beaten the Rangers 3-2 to take the lead in the opener of this seven-game series. The Cards’ Jason Motte got a sharp fly ball out of Nelson Cruz to end the game. The very, very happy Cards are trotting around the field right now, just 3:07 after they trotted out. Rangers send Colby Lewis to the mound tomorrow, with Jaime Garcia pitching for the Cardinals.

Comments (5 of 27)

Wonderful. Amazing items from you, man. Ive research your products prior to and you're just as well awesome. I appreciate what you've got right here, like what you're revealing and the way you say it.panworld university

SPORTS, THE JOURNAL WAY

Be sure to check your Daily Fix all week long. The Fix's daily rundown of the best sportswriting on the Web is joined by features such as The Count, a look at the most revealing sports stats, as well as regular live reports of major sports events. Tell us what you think of the Fix at dailyfixlinks@gmail.com.